I love House. It had to grow on me for a long time to become a "must watch" and now it is.

Lots of things require suspension of disbelief, obviously, and I'm sure there's been plenty of conversation about various details.

But here's what I choke on all the time: the central premise, which is not so much that there's this wildly brilliant diagnostician that's so damn great he can get away with utterly insane behavior that puts the hospital at huge risk virtually daily, because that's just fun.

No, what I find nearly impossible to swallow is the idea that this diagnostician is SO fucking fantastic and SO damn valuable that he is his own department, and that his department requires a support staff of 3-4 extremely talented doctors in ADDITION to Dr. Amazing, and that they are devoted 100% of the time to his special cases that are so unusual. (And of course, I find it ridiculous that the cases they take on seemingly happen in the neighborhood somewhere and accidentally land in his hospital, vs. the cases being SENT there BECAUSE of House. He always gets to PICK from the latest bizarro admissions? And has anyone else noticed, if you watch consistently, how often they come up with the same guesses? I have no idea what the diseases and conditions are off the top of my head, but I know when I'm watching that I've heard them suggest a particular possibility about every other episode. Its like a chinese menu each week. How much special skill does that take? And of course, i'm sure there's been endless bitching about the fact that every single treatment they try creates some kind of trackable reaction within hours at most, and while I'm certainly no medical professional, I've seen and known sick people and been a sick person myself, and this bears no resemblence to any experience of illness and treatment that i've ever seen, with extremely rare exceptions.)

Even in teaching hospitals, is there such a thing as a Department of Diagnosis? If there is or would be... would four doctors be working full time on the ONE case that department gets? Why is House the only one who ever has to do clinic hours? Shouldn't his staff be doing clinic hours as well?

And frankly, as much as I enjoy the show and love the character and just go along for the ride, I don't think they really do that good a job of SELLING the premise. I don't really understand how they can't do it without him and he can't do it without them. Maybe I'm not paying close enough attention, but it seems like they just keep guessing wrong, all of them, and then House has some completely unrelated flash of insight based on the snarky remark Wilson made after House grabbed his lunch.

Which, again, on a pure entertainment level, I can roll with. But my mind won't stop elbowing me and saying: "Really? C'mon! What the fuck?"

gigi

05-15-2009, 02:22 PM

I agree completely. I can't imagine how much it costs to keep that department going for the one person they help every two weeks. Presumably they write up the cases (Foreman stole Cameron's paper that time) and spread the knowledge? But still.

And unless the patient is one he has plucked from the ER there, hasn't the patient been through all kinds of crap before they get to him? Crap that should have already killed him?

And to echo your point about him needing a team so badly. They tried to show that back when he was without the initial three and yet now it's back to the stare and soundtrack of Realization Dawning and eight minutes left. At least they had Wilson make fun of the pattern that one time.

It's one of my few must-sees as well, but I do have to suspend disbelief.

Hello Again

05-15-2009, 02:25 PM

(And of course, I find it ridiculous that the cases they take on seemingly happen in the neighborhood somewhere and accidentally land in his hospital, vs. the cases being SENT there BECAUSE of House.
Agree with the basic premise, but it is clear, at least some of the time, that the patients have been sent from other hospitals specifically to see House (and then became various shades of enraged when they're treated by the Houselings instead).

Smeghead

05-15-2009, 02:30 PM

What gets me is how often (at least in the few episodes I've seen) the drama depends on the patient having three or four incredibly rare conditions simultaneously, and having each one manifest itself in a bizarrely unusual way.

Also seeing the doctors doing lab work, but that's more of a personal experience thing.

Skald the Rhymer

05-15-2009, 02:30 PM

I think they actually average about a week per patient; we only see 22 rather than 50 a year because of the TV schedule. And they all do clinic hours. Admittedly, House does as few as he can get away with, but I'm sure the junior docs do a good deal more. I can easily imagine Cameron doing more than she actually had to when she was a junior doc.

That said, don't analyze House for plausibility. Doing so leads only to tears.

ETA: The multiple conditions don't bother me. They fit into the basic premise of House & his team only getting insanely hard cases in the first place. Complaining about that is like complaining that the Justice League only deals with alien invasions, evil gods, and volcanoes rather than muggers.

Stoid

05-15-2009, 02:43 PM

And as long as we're in dissection mode, I also have a hard time with the way the writers commingle House's extraordinarily high IQ with an equally extraordinary EQ, or rather, that they think the two are the same. Having an amazing analytical gift does not lead to an amazing ability to read people and understand their psychological and emotional motivations. And given his, well, outright hostility towards the social contracts that just about everyone else agrees to on some level, it seems really hard to believe that he'd be that tuned in to people.

But again...fun.

cjepson

05-15-2009, 03:00 PM

And has anyone else noticed, if you watch consistently, how often they come up with the same guesses?

They've made fun of this at least once.

"Lupus?"
"Nah, it's never lupus."

panache45

05-15-2009, 03:03 PM

If you want 100% credible reality, go to an actual hospital and watch them diagnose patients. But bring some entertainment, cause you'll be bored out of your mind. If you want entertainment, watch House.

BrainGlutton

05-15-2009, 03:04 PM

But here's what I choke on all the time: the central premise, which is not so much that there's this wildly brilliant diagnostician that's so damn great he can get away with utterly insane behavior that puts the hospital at huge risk virtually daily, because that's just fun.

Cuddy has commented on that several times. One aspect of the arrangement is that she can get away with paying House considerably less than an equally brilliant but more socially tolerable physician would demand, and he can hope to find work practically nowhere else. Another is that she has a certain amount of money set aside annually to deal with House-related lawsuits, and so far the hospital is coming out ahead of the game.

Greg Charles

05-15-2009, 04:36 PM

I liked the show when it first came on. I'm also a big fan of Hugh Laurie, and it's fun to hear him do the American accent. However, the show is extremely repetitive. Doesn't that get to you after awhile? It did for me.

Least Original User Name Ever

05-15-2009, 05:30 PM

I liked the show when it first came on. I'm also a big fan of Hugh Laurie, and it's fun to hear him do the American accent. However, the show is extremely repetitive. Doesn't that get to you after awhile? It did for me.

For me, that's not he show. It's the backdrop for House's interactions with the rest of the human world.

mr. jp

05-15-2009, 05:55 PM

And as long as we're in dissection mode, I also have a hard time with the way the writers commingle House's extraordinarily high IQ with an equally extraordinary EQ, or rather, that they think the two are the same. Having an amazing analytical gift does not lead to an amazing ability to read people and understand their psychological and emotional motivations. And given his, well, outright hostility towards the social contracts that just about everyone else agrees to on some level, it seems really hard to believe that he'd be that tuned in to people.

But again...fun.

I don't think they conflate the two. He just has both. And of course you can understand people without being a people person. In the reality of a show that seems like an advantage actually, since everybody lies.

Rubystreak

05-15-2009, 06:01 PM

I can't believe House isn't sue all the time. For instance, in the finale-- an improper treatment caused the girl's skin to fall off. He actually apologized to her for it. Then, he wanted to cut her hands and feet off, which ooops, turns out wasn't necessary after all. Wouldn't a doctor who did stuff like that on a weekly basis be sued out of existence, and have his medical license revoked? He's just too quick to do crazy shit to people, often screwing up and hurting them, if not permanently, certainly scaring the crap out of them. The problem is, if anyone says no to him, he turns out to be right.

So yes, the show is medically infuriating. I watch for Hugh Laurie, period.

aruvqan

05-15-2009, 07:18 PM

I think they actually average about a week per patient; we only see 22 rather than 50 a year because of the TV schedule. And they all do clinic hours. Admittedly, House does as few as he can get away with, but I'm sure the junior docs do a good deal more. I can easily imagine Cameron doing more than she actually had to when she was a junior doc.

That said, don't analyze House for plausibility. Doing so leads only to tears.

ETA: The multiple conditions don't bother me. They fit into the basic premise of House & his team only getting insanely hard cases in the first place. Complaining about that is like complaining that the Justice League only deals with alien invasions, evil gods, and volcanoes rather than muggers.

Analyzing house is good for giggles ...

And multiple conditions are actually rather common - the average person has a lot of tenants [you know how many viruses and bacteria normally live in the human body?] then you add a genetic twist, then a reaction to some medication ...

I have all the little internal guests, then I have the diabetes, I have the genetic twist to predispose me to CPPD, and my parathyroid randomly went frisky on me. It all combined to make me need a lot of medical care in a fairly short time, and resulted in me getting CPPD and losing some height thanks to the calcium metabolism issue. I am glad that I didnt end up with any sort of infection but I ascribe that to taking a z pack to clear up a touch of bronchitis just before surgery and getting prophylactic antibiotics after surgery.

ToeJam

05-15-2009, 07:19 PM

Then, he wanted to cut her hands and feet off, which ooops, turns out wasn't necessary after all.

Nitpick:
That wasn't House though. That was the other Doctors' ideas since House wasn't there.
House apologized for his mistake and then that was it with the skin problems.

Stoid

05-15-2009, 07:24 PM

I liked the show when it first came on. I'm also a big fan of Hugh Laurie, and it's fun to hear him do the American accent.

There are some damn fine American accents being done in the movies and TV, but Hugh Laurie is genuinely flawless. I have a really good ear (and I'm completely immodest about the fact that I do great accents myself. I can say that because everyone else does...I've fooled a pretty good number of Brits in my day.) and I can hear the tiny imperfections, and I swear he doesn't have any. Absolutely perfect.

Lakai

05-15-2009, 07:33 PM

How would a patient win a law suit if it turned out that House made the correct medical decision?

I can see the girl with the skin falling off having a case, but House saved her life didn't he? It would be a stretch if she tried to cash in on that mistake anyway.

So every time House pissed off a patient he was making the right medical move. And every time he broke the law, he ended up saving the patient's life. So far he hasn't pissed off a patient and then killed them.

Skald the Rhymer

05-15-2009, 09:27 PM

House does get sued a lot; Cuddy told Stacy that a ridiculous percentage of their lawsuits involved him.

But I imagine he wins more cases than you'd think, because his patients (or their families) often bring the problems on themselves by lying. I'm thinking specifically of the couple who had an "ideal" marriage which House and Cameron were betting on; the wife nearly died because she wouldn't admit she had once been unfaithful. Likewise, the who didn't want to admit to having cheated on her husband. Likewise the father who had accidentally communicated leprosy to his son; he didn't want to admit having been foolish in his youth.

Part of the reason House is a great diagnostician in the show's universe is that he can read people's emotional states but doesn't care in general about their emotions. Cameron could be as good as he, I think, if it weren't for those pesky feelings.

ETA: that's not to say he couldn't lose a case. I'm sure a savvy plaintiff's attorney would simply refuse to settle and try to force him to take the stand. A jury might well react with pure hatred toward himand decide to penalize him for being an asshole whether he was right or not.

C K Dexter Haven

05-15-2009, 10:57 PM

What gets me is how often (at least in the few episodes I've seen) the drama depends on the patient having three or four incredibly rare conditions simultaneously, and having each one manifest itself in a bizarrely unusual way.My recollection is that's a consequence of the show having gone on for so many seasons. The first season, it was just one (admittedly rare or bizarre) disease each week. After that, they probably ran out of interesting diseases, and so started this bit about having trichinosis AND tonsilitis at the same time.

Rubystreak

05-15-2009, 11:22 PM

Nitpick:
That wasn't House though. That was the other Doctors' ideas since House wasn't there.
House apologized for his mistake and then that was it with the skin problems.

OK, then what about the little girl who was going to have her arm cut off, but it was stopped on the operating table?

I guess, since he turns out to be right in the end, the law suits might be more difficult, but it seems like frequently, a good portion of the patient's medical problems turn out to be complications from an incorrect treatment. He does a lot of things like drilling into people's brains and other invasive procedures that might be approached with more caution, and often to no avail.

audiobottle

05-15-2009, 11:43 PM

OK, then what about the little girl who was going to have her arm cut off, but it was stopped on the operating table?

I guess, since he turns out to be right in the end, the law suits might be more difficult, but it seems like frequently, a good portion of the patient's medical problems turn out to be complications from an incorrect treatment. He does a lot of things like drilling into people's brains and other invasive procedures that might be approached with more caution, and often to no avail.

I'm not a lawyer, nor even a doctor, and I'm going off just the episode from a week ago or so
House prescribing antibiotics in that case wasn't anything wrong. The reaction that caused her skin to fall off is exceptionally rare, and Wilson even says that House didn't do anything wrong with it. Even though House apologized, it doesn't necessarily count as an admission guilt (although I don't recall the exact wording). I can't really speak for any others, but just because a treatment causes terrible side effects doesn't mean that it shouldn't have been tried.

Rubystreak

05-15-2009, 11:48 PM

It was a treatment that didn't solve the problem at all, but left her with her skin falling off. Yes, it's a rare side effect, and maybe it wasn't his fault, but people sue for less than that all the time. And he does more egregriously risky things than that every week. I'm just not sure how he's bringing in enough money to offset the costs of all the lawsuits.

For instance, when he gave that deaf boy cochlear implants without consent. Now, it turned out the mother secretly wanted to do that, even though she seemed pissed off at first, but isn't doing that kind of thing frankly illegal? Would something like that ever happen in real life?

Stoid

05-16-2009, 12:08 AM

Speaking of the skin falling off, did anyone else here see the story on Discovery or some other science like channel abotu the woman to whom that happened who lived?

Briefly, I LOVE this story:

Woman has horrible reaction. ALL her skin sheds. This is virtually always fatal. Because this means ALL your skin, including every layer, your eyelids, the mucous membranes...everything. This woman was a nightmare. Evidently her agony is indescribable.

So, miraculously, she survives.

This is unheard of. But the expectation is that she will be hideously scarred, like a burn victim, since that's pretty much what she looked like. She was just a raw open wound.

Well, turns out just the opposite occurred. She grew new skin from scratch and it was perfect. Like a brand new baby. Very delicate the first year or so she had to stay completely covered in the sun. But her dermatologist told her that she's going to look half her age, because her skin really is new... she got to hit the "delete" button on 30 years of wear and tear on the skin.

I would never want to go through what she went through to get there, but GOD I envy how she came out the other side. One of the biggest bummers about being fat most of my life is that my skin is trashed. I will never be able to look like someone who was never fat, no matter how much surgery I might get, no one can. (It's the great personal tragedy of weight loss. At least, weight loss after a long time of being fat.) But imagine losing all the weight, then being somehow able to shed your skin and grow a brand new, tight, unstretched, springy skin??

They will find a way to do it some day, long after I'm dead. I'm so jealous.

Kobal2

05-16-2009, 01:10 AM

One thing I wonder is whether his truth checking through medication happens. That is, whenever the team agrees on a diagnostic, they immediately give the patient whatever fixes it. If they're not sure, they give him all the different meds for all the different hypothesis and see what sticks.

That seems... stark raving loony to me.
Wouldn't the effects of different meds interfere with each other in new and interesting ways ? And wouldn't real docs rather wait for new symptoms to appear before giving the patient heavy meds with serious side effects on a guess rather than a certitude ?

I mean, OK, there may never be an ironclad certitude. But "hmmm... that disease could fit. Give him the meds for that, see if he gets better", in my understanding of how medicine works, would lead to :
- "Damn, now his kidneys are failing. It wasn't Lupus. New symptom !"
- "House, kidney failure is a possible side effect of what we just gave him"
- "...Yes. I knew that. So we don't know whether it's a symptom or not. OK, let's split the board ! Come up with another disease fitting the previous symptoms and give him the meds for that. And come up with a disease fitting the previous symptoms plus kidney failure, and give him the meds for that too !"
- ... House, did you get your medical degree from Dr.Mario (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Mario_(video_game)) ? He's not a real doctor, you know...

njtt

05-16-2009, 04:29 AM

How come once they do get the right diagnosis, and give the treatment, the patient is (almost) always right as rain? There is never any hint that they might suffer some chronic problems from all the times they almost died, or blood started coming out of their eyes, or whatever.

Also, if House is such a great diagnostician, how come he always gets it wrong about 5 times, before he finally figures it out?

MacSpon

05-16-2009, 04:47 AM

And how come his cronies, er, henchmen, er, assistants never get arrested for breaking into patients' houses all the time? :)

mr. jp

05-16-2009, 05:39 AM

Also, if House is such a great diagnostician, how come he always gets it wrong about 5 times, before he finally figures it out?

Is there any evidence that we see all his cases, and not just the interesting ones?

Annie-Xmas

05-16-2009, 09:06 AM

House probably sees about 50 patients a week. We only see the one he screws up. The rest are diagnosed, treated and out of there.

Skald the Rhymer

05-16-2009, 12:46 PM

House probably sees about 50 patients a week. We only see the one he screws up. The rest are diagnosed, treated and out of there.

That depends on how you define patient. He probably zooms through most of his clinic patients, both because he hates everyone whose name is not "Wilson" or "Cuddy" and because he is an ace diagnostician. It wouldn't surprise me that, though he surely does fewer clinic hours than most of his peers, he sees more patients in the clinic.

If you restrict patients to those admitted to the hospital and in the care of the entire team, Wilson has said that he averages about 1 of those a week. Assuming he gets 4 weeks vacation, I'd bet that we only see half, and the others are, however interesting from a medical POV, boring from a dramatic POV.

Scissorjack

05-16-2009, 04:47 PM

I can't willingly suspend my disbelief enough to get past the fact that the hospital would be sued by his students and staff themselves: order them to obtain a female supervisor's undies, under penalty of being fired for failure? That's a lawsuit.

All medical dramas follow the same arc anyway as they gradually run out of ideas through the various seasons:

Season 1: A patient has Wuzzle's disease.

Season 2: There's a plane crash and the hospital is overflowing.

Season 3: There's an outbreak of Wuzzle's disease. And a plane crash. An original cast member leaves the show. Poignantly.

Season 4: There's a guy with a gun. With Wuzzle's disease. More OCM's leave, with varying degrees of poignancy depending on how much money they wanted.

Season 5: Uh, we're stuck on a plane. With a guy with a gun. Who has Wuzzle's disease. Departing cast members are barely even referred to anymore.

Season 6: Aw, Jeez. Uh, have we done a dream sequence yet?

Season 7: Or a musical episode? About a guy with a gun who's survived a plane crash only to wind up in a hospital full of doctor's dreaming about Wuzzle's disease?

Season 8: The lead quits. Possibly poignantly.

Season 9: His replacement is a fearsomely capable. black woman who don't take shit from Wuzzle's disease, guys with guns, plane crashes, dream sequences, musical numbers, departing cast members or any roll D20 combination of the above.

Season 10: Welp, we're cancelled.

Skald the Rhymer

05-16-2009, 05:30 PM

I can't willingly suspend my disbelief enough to get past the fact that the hospital would be sued by his students and staff themselves: order them to obtain a female supervisor's undies, under penalty of being fired for failure? That's a lawsuit.

All medical dramas follow the same arc anyway as they gradually run out of ideas through the various seasons:

Season 1: A patient has Wuzzle's disease.

Season 2: There's a plane crash and the hospital is overflowing.

Season 3: There's an outbreak of Wuzzle's disease. And a plane crash. An original cast member leaves the show. Poignantly.

Season 4: There's a guy with a gun. With Wuzzle's disease. More OCM's leave, with varying degrees of poignancy depending on how much money they wanted.

Season 5: Uh, we're stuck on a plane. With a guy with a gun. Who has Wuzzle's disease. Departing cast members are barely even referred to anymore.

Season 6: Aw, Jeez. Uh, have we done a dream sequence yet?

Season 7: Or a musical episode? About a guy with a gun who's survived a plane crash only to wind up in a hospital full of doctor's dreaming about Wuzzle's disease?

Season 8: The lead quits. Possibly poignantly.

Season 9: His replacement is a fearsomely capable. black woman who don't take shit from Wuzzle's disease, guys with guns, plane crashes, dream sequences, musical numbers, departing cast members or any roll D20 combination of the above.

Season 10: Welp, we're cancelled.

This progression doesn't work for House. It only works for ensemble shows, which House is not. You can't replace Laurie and keep the concept working.

Shodan

05-16-2009, 05:54 PM

I can't believe House isn't sue all the time. For instance, in the finale-- an improper treatment caused the girl's skin to fall off. He actually apologized to her for it. Then, he wanted to cut her hands and feet off, which ooops, turns out wasn't necessary after all. Wouldn't a doctor who did stuff like that on a weekly basis be sued out of existence, and have his medical license revoked? He's just too quick to do crazy shit to people, often screwing up and hurting them, if not permanently, certainly scaring the crap out of them. The problem is, if anyone says no to him, he turns out to be right.

So yes, the show is medically infuriating. I watch for Hugh Laurie, period.This is why I can't bear to watch the show (the Lovely and Talented Mrs. Shodan loves it). He's addicted to drugs, and everybody on staff with him, including the administrators, knows it. And they overlook it, as well as his abuse of patients.

This is the kind of situation tort lawyers dream of, and wake to miss. A House lawsuit would bankrupt not only him, but the entire hospital and everyone who ever worked with him.

I don't care how brilliant and charismatic he is. He is a walking - OK, limping - talking time bomb, and when he gets sued, everyone and everything is going down with him.

Regards,
Shodan

Dewey Finn

05-16-2009, 08:22 PM

OK, then what about the little girl who was going to have her arm cut off, but it was stopped on the operating table?
What I don't like is when he inevitably enters the OR in street clothes without scrubbing up or wearing a mask to either stop the operation or actually perform a procedure.

Also, FYI, the show is inspired, at least in part, by a monthly column in the New York Times Sunday Magazine. You can read some of the columns here (http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/news/health/columns/diagnosis/index.html).

drachillix

05-16-2009, 08:25 PM

Part of the reason House is a great diagnostician in the show's universe is that he can read people's emotional states but doesn't care in general about their emotions. Cameron could be as good as he, I think, if it weren't for those pesky feelings.

and sadly people like to place all kinds of weight on warm and fuzzy when you need someone like House for the lose-lose scenarios to pull out a not lose so bad.

gigi

05-18-2009, 09:02 AM

There are some damn fine American accents being done in the movies and TV, but Hugh Laurie is genuinely flawless. I have a really good ear (and I'm completely immodest about the fact that I do great accents myself. I can say that because everyone else does...I've fooled a pretty good number of Brits in my day.) and I can hear the tiny imperfections, and I swear he doesn't have any. Absolutely perfect.Of course I can't remember it now, but there was one time when he pronounced a word with the "wrong" vowel sound. Does he have that tiny lisp/issue with esses when he speaks in his natural voice, or is that added to the character?

gonzomax

05-18-2009, 10:23 AM

I wonder why they do not use computers in diagnostics. I see him put symptoms on a blackboard and then try to figure them out. Why can't a computer do the heavy lifting? It surely could eliminate a lot of wrong guesses.

shy guy

05-18-2009, 12:14 PM

However, the show is extremely repetitive. Doesn't that get to you after awhile? It did for me.
That's what makes the show so great - you always know what to expect. It's not like The X-Files or something where I might tune in hoping for a Monster of the Week episode only to get an hour of conspiracy bullshit; House is the single most reliable non-reality show on TV, because every episode is the exact same thing, with the same events occurring at the exact same time in every episode.

I'm never let down by House because it always delivers exactly what it promises.

Eyebrows 0f Doom

05-18-2009, 12:50 PM

I've only seen the current season and random other episodes here and there, so was it ever explained why and how the doctors can always gain access to the patient's homes? Do they ever have permission to do that? That whole aspect always seems so bizarre.

Lakai

05-18-2009, 12:57 PM

They only complained about it in the first episode and House countered with some racists remarks about Foreman robbing people. After that it became SOP to check the patient's home. Sometimes it looks like they have permission and other times they probably don't.

Dewey Finn

05-18-2009, 01:03 PM

IANAL, but from watching endless hours of Law & Order, the police can sometimes perform a warrantless search under exigent circumstances (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exigent_Circumstances), including when someone is in imminent danger. Perhaps the hospital's lawyers would argue that the search by the doctors is permissible due to the immediate danger posed by the patient's illness.

Agent Foxtrot

05-18-2009, 01:25 PM

Briefly, I LOVE this story:

Woman has horrible reaction. ALL her skin sheds. This is virtually always fatal. Because this means ALL your skin, including every layer, your eyelids, the mucous membranes...everything. This woman was a nightmare. Evidently her agony is indescribable.

So, miraculously, she survives.

This is unheard of. But the expectation is that she will be hideously scarred, like a burn victim, since that's pretty much what she looked like. She was just a raw open wound.

Well, turns out just the opposite occurred. She grew new skin from scratch and it was perfect. Like a brand new baby. Very delicate the first year or so she had to stay completely covered in the sun. But her dermatologist told her that she's going to look half her age, because her skin really is new... she got to hit the "delete" button on 30 years of wear and tear on the skin.

I would never want to go through what she went through to get there, but GOD I envy how she came out the other side. One of the biggest bummers about being fat most of my life is that my skin is trashed. I will never be able to look like someone who was never fat, no matter how much surgery I might get, no one can. (It's the great personal tragedy of weight loss. At least, weight loss after a long time of being fat.) But imagine losing all the weight, then being somehow able to shed your skin and grow a brand new, tight, unstretched, springy skin??

They will find a way to do it some day, long after I'm dead. I'm so jealous.Do you have a cite for this, by any chance? I'd love to read about her.

duality72

05-18-2009, 03:41 PM

Do you have a cite for this, by any chance? I'd love to read about her.

Don't know if this is who Stoid was originally referring to, but here's a link (http://stevensjohnsonsyndrome.clarislaw.com/about-stevens-johnson-syndrome/new-case-of-toxic-epidermal-necrolysis-ten-identified-in-tenessesse-woman.php)I found about one such case.

Surprisingly, to me, the mortality rate for the condition is "only" 30-40% according to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxic_epidermal_necrolysis).

alphaboi867

05-18-2009, 04:23 PM

...Perhaps the hospital's lawyers would argue that the search by the doctors is permissible due to the immediate danger posed by the patient's illness.

Either that or there's a short clause in the paperwork the patient (or their next-of-kin) signs when they're admitted.

Fact of the Matter

05-18-2009, 06:41 PM

Here is a link to a doctors review of each shows medicine http://www.politedissent.com/house_pd.html